#call Greg Abbott

[gregoryeddiesgoldchain]

and if i said gregory and tariq hooking up could be a powerful part of gregory’s bi awakening then what

[larrylimericks]

2Oct22

In Texas, abortion’s unlawful Cos Abbott’s a massive twatwaffle. H emblazoned support For the present O’Rourke— May he win by a margin colossal.

[shirkers2018dirsanditan]

if i see one more ad about crime i will fucking lose my mind. it is so sickening to see people leverage the murders of their loved ones to advocate for candidates that do not give a fuck about the people most vulnerable to crime and offer nothing that would actually address crime. all they’re doing is the same tired tough on crime pro cop bullshit they always do. and it’s obviously republicans who are the worst with this but as i said democrats are capitulating like they always do with their own bullshit

[weepingfireflies]

Unfriendly reminder not to criticize someone based on their disability or doubt them simply because you don't like them/they're a bad person.

Greg Abbott is one of the most repulsive and fucked up people in Texas, and I sincerely hope he loses and can never hold office again. I will never respect him as an authority figure and barely respect him as a person. I am in no way defending him, but it is still not okay to say he's "faking" being in a wheelchair or to make fun of his disability. The "make fun of someone for their policies, not their physical appearance" applies to everyone, not because they deserve to be defended but because disabled people do.

[anonymouscomrade]

Greg Abbott is shipping migrants off again? you know, i recall another group in recent history tried to do that with people THEY considered "undesirables". i don't think it worked out for them, though

i wonder what their Final Solution to this was

[worldwide-blackfolk]

Facts.

[i-am-aprl]

A brave Palestinian American woman in Houston, Texas, interrupted a local political event where Texas Governor Greg Abbott was speaking, demanding that he call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

Disheartening to see the audience members trying to shut her up, but not all surprising from a Republican audience in Texas.

[capybaracorn]

Columbia suspends students after deadline to end Gaza camp passes

The number of arrests has crossed 1,100 since New York police detained first demonstrators at Columbia on April 18.

(April 30th 2024)

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators hold a protest outside Columbia University in New York City. [Michael M Santiago/Getty Images via AFP]

Columbia University has begun suspending student demonstrators after they defied an ultimatum to disperse.

The New York University, the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests that have upended college campuses across the United States, made the call on Monday.

The move follows almost two weeks of protests against Israel’s war in Gaza, which have swept through higher education institutions from coast to coast, and spread into Europe. The demonstrators have demanded that the universities cease all investment in Israel or companies that are seen as supporting its war effort.

The response of the authorities has been tough, with critics of the protests referring to sporadic instances of anti-Semitism. About 100 protesters were arrested at Columbia on April 18.

In the latest crackdown, authorities at the prestigious university in New York had demanded that the protest encampment be cleared by 2pm (18:00 GMT) or students would face disciplinary action.

“These repulsive scare tactics mean nothing compared to the deaths of over 34,000 Palestinians,” said a statement, read out by a student at a news conference after the deadline passed, referring to the death toll in Gaza.

“We will not move until Columbia meets our demands or … [we] are moved by force,” said the student.

A few hours later, Columbia vice president of communications, Ben Chang, said the university had “begun suspending students as part of this next phase of our efforts to ensure safety on our campus”.

He said students had been warned they would be “placed on suspension, ineligible to complete the semester or graduate, and will be restricted from all academic, residential, and recreational spaces”.

Meanwhile, at the University of Texas in Austin, police used pepper spray as they clashed with protesters on Monday. Arrests were made as they dismantled an encampment, adding to the more than 350 people detained nationwide over the weekend.

“No encampments will be allowed,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said on social media. “Instead, arrests are being made.”

Protests against the Gaza war, with its high Palestinian civilian death toll, have posed a challenge to university administrators trying to balance free speech rights with complaints that the rallies have veered into anti-Semitism and hate.

Footage of police in riot gear summoned at various colleges to break up rallies has been viewed around the world, recalling the protest movement that erupted during the Vietnam War.

Columbia University president, Minouche Shafik, in a statement on Monday announcing talks had broken down, said, “Many of our Jewish students, and other students as well, have found the atmosphere intolerable in recent weeks.

“Many have left campus, and that is a tragedy,” she continued. “Anti-Semitic language and actions are unacceptable and calls for violence are simply abhorrent.”

Protest organisers deny accusations of anti-Semitism, arguing their actions are aimed at Israel’s government and its prosecution of the conflict in Gaza.

They also insist there have been incidents engineered by non-student agitators.

A protester wears the university's disciplinary warning covered over by support for Palestinians in Gaza at Columbia University in New York City. [Alex Kent/Getty Images via AFP]

The protests have upended university campuses across the US, with the number of arrests crossing 1,100. [Caitlin Ochs/Reuters]

A faculty member holds up a sign as faculty members seek to protect students in the Pro-Palestinian "Gaza Solidarity Encampment" at Columbia University. [Michael M Santiago/Getty Images via AFP]

Protesters at Columbia defied a deadline to disband the event with chants, clapping and drumming. [Stefan Jeremiah/AP Photo]

Columbia University issued a notice to the protesters asking them to disband their encampment after negotiations failed to come to a resolution. [Spencer Platt/Getty Images via AFP]

Demonstrators gathered outside an entrance to Columbia University as the 2pm deadline to disband or face suspension approached. [David Dee Delgado/Reuters]

Students condemned the university’s attempts to silence the protesters and said they were determined to continue. “What trumps our fear is our love for Palestine, and our love for liberation, and our refusal to accept subjugation and censorship from an oppressive institution,” one said. [Nuri Vallbona/Reuters]

Pro-Palestinian supporters continue to demonstrate on the campus of Columbia University. [Spencer Platt/Getty Images via AFP]

One graduate student protester said: "It's finals week. But at the end of the day, school is temporary." [Alex Kent/Getty Images via AFP]

[republicansaredomesticterrorists]

The parody site posted a fake article that claimed Brooks was booed off stage by Texas country fans upset that Brooks supports diversity. It won’t on to say that Brooks called the imaginary fans assholes. Abbott was in such a hurry to hate on the lgbt and Brooks that he tweeted the article .

[pissvortex]

Greg Abbott is busing asylum seekers to Chicago as a “gotcha!” to asylum cities but they were treated like such shit on the US-Mexico border that when they found out they were getting shipped to Chicago their reaction was, by and large, “I would have preferred New York City but this works too”. and Chicago had shelters and food waiting for them when they got here. it’s honest to god impressive to see how badly the republicans have been fumbling what should have been an incredibly easily midterms victory. just setting the democrats up for the perfect layup here

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2022/8/31/23332036/migrants-sent-by-texas-governor-arrive-in-chicago

[mysticfoxdesigns]

Texas Antisemitism Executive Order

PLEASE SHARE THIS AROUND!!

As many of y'all know by now, I am a Texan. Specifically a Texan in higher education, at a public university. Gov. Abbott's new executive order to have public universities crack down on Anti-Semitic speech directly impacts the students advocating for Palestine.

Phrases such as "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" can now be considered HATE SPEECH!

“Some radical organizations on our campuses engaged in acts that have no place in Texas,” Abbott said in a press release. “Now, we must work to ensure that our college campuses are safe spaces for members of the Jewish community.”

This was never about protecting Jewish people, but protecting Zionists. The order was issued after universities across Texas had issues after Oct. 7th's events. Pro-Palestine and Pro-Israel students were butting heads, and some broke out into fights according to some sources. As a uni student myself, I have seen these conflicting sides in person. Abbott's statement also makes no mention of the Anti-Islamic rhetoric that has also been spreading due to Israel's persecution of Palestinians.

This order calls for all public universities and colleges review their free speech policies, and to lay out in their policies the definition of antisemitism, and punishments for Anti-Semitic rhetoric. All within 90 days of the order's publishment.

Most of this appears to be banking on HB 3257, the bill that introduced Texas' Holocaust, Genocide, And Antisemitism Advisory Commission

Now, there has been some actual pushback on this, from the The Texas chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Texas) as well as students and administration from the universities and colleges effected.

“This order not only undermines the principles of free speech and academic freedom but also perpetuates a harmful narrative that equates criticism of Israeli policies with antisemitism,” CAIR-DFW Executive Director Mustafa Carroll said in a statement.

Taken from the Dallas Morning News article posted earlier in this post.

The wordage used by Abbott worries many people, due to the fact that it is so vague. To the point where criticizing Israel and it's government can be considered hate speech.

Please share this around. If it is happening here, it can happen to any state.

Don't stop speaking about Palestine. Don't stop supporting the Palestinian citizens who are displaced right now. Educate your peers, donate if you are able, and don't give up hope.

[fandomsandfeminism]

I don't know if yall have been following it, but the fact that we are learning more and more about just how badly the police fucked up in Uvalde, and the lies they told in the initial reports, is all just fucking insane.

Lying about where the schools SO was and that he tried to stop the shooter from entering (The SO was off campus when the shooter entered.)

That the police sat around for *40 minutes* while the shooter was in the joined classroom *with the kids* (we are getting reports now that kids were actively calling 911 from the joined room begging for help, and still the cops waited around for a Border Patrol swat team to show up).

Witnesses are saying that parents, trying to get the police to actually *go into the school* were handcuffed and pepper sprayed by police.

Then you have the police straight up ignoring the Spanish language journalists at the press conference and no one being there to translate (80% of the town is Hispanic).

And Greg Abbott saying that "it could have been worse"

How could it have been worse, Abbott? What does that mean? Go on, say it. What would have made this worse?

[mariacallous]

Far-right extremists have spent the past week harassing and threatening migrants on the United States border with Mexico while making money by livestreaming it on YouTube and Rumble.

“Anybody in there,” said Dennis Yarbery, one of the YouTubers, as he approached a migrant camp at night in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, near the border last week. Yarbery was livestreaming to thousands of people. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

Yarbery is one of three men who split off from the Take Our Border Back convoy in Texas and, according to their livestreams, spent days driving along the border in Arizona and California to harass migrants and volunteers with nonprofit groups.

“We’re illegal hunters,” Yarbery told a store clerk while livestreaming at a Subway sandwich counter in Jacumba Hot Springs. “I’ve hunted a lot in my life, but I’ve never actually hunted people, and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Yarbery, who is known online as both MasterGrifter and Big D and says he joined the People’s Convoy, a group that protested Covid lockdown measures and disrupted traffic, in 2022, was joined by Josh Fulfer, known as OreoExpress, and Joe Felix, known as Taco Joe, who runs 1st Responders Media, an outlet focused on livestreaming far-right events.

Throughout the hours-long broadcasts from the border in Arizona and California, these livestreamers regularly asked for donations from their supporters, which they claimed was being used to continue their work “covering” the crisis.

Even while in the middle of harassing the migrants, the livestreamers could still be heard thanking those who were sending them money via YouTube’s Super Chat function or through other platforms like Venmo and the Christian-aligned crowdfunding site GiveSendGo. In one situation, while Fulfer was shouting at migrants in Arizona telling them to go home, he stopped briefly to call out a supporter who had sent him $50 on Venmo.

These livestreamers come after weeks of inflamed rhetoric from both the far-right community and Republican lawmakers about immigration at the Texas border with Mexico. This year, the situation has erupted: After Texas governor Greg Abbott refused to heed the Biden administration’s calls to remove razor wire along the border, a dozen GOP governors publicly declared support for Abbott, and the Take Our Border Back convoy traveled from Virginia to Texas. Though the convoy petered out, the violent anti-immigrant rhetoric, which experts have warned would have long-term impacts, has only heightened.

“The post-convoy terror campaign against immigrants at the border follows an all-too-familiar pattern we’ve tracked for the past couple of decades,” Devin Burghart, the executive director at the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, tells WIRED. “Public bragging about ‘hunting people’ is a descent into a dangerous new low for armed vigilantes. Left unchecked, armed far-right vigilantes will spill more blood.”

After the livestreamers left Texas, they went to Sasabe in Arizona and a migrant camp run by No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization that provides support for migrants crossing the border.

During an hours-long livestream at night, Yarbery, Fulfer, and Felix all shouted at the migrants and accused them of human trafficking. Yarbery even tried to sell cigarettes to the migrants for $20 each. At one point, Fulfer threatened violence against a migrant who was shining a torch at their cameras.

The trio also verbally attacked a volunteer who worked with the organization, following her around as she phoned for help from US Border Patrol, according to livestreams of the incident viewed by WIRED before they were taken offline.

Yarbery, Felix, and Fulfer didn’t respond to WIRED’s requests for comment about their actions at the border.

Laurie Cantillo, a board member from Humane Borders, says the organization, which maintains water stations along migrant routes near the border, is aware of the allegations of harassment. “We have noticed an increase in vandalism of our permitted water stations along the border,” Cantillo tells WIRED. “Our 55-gallon barrels have been shot, stabbed, drained, and stolen. It’s a sad state of affairs when someone sabotages water that can save a human life.”

US Border Patrol and No More Deaths did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the incident. One former volunteer with No More Deaths, who did not want to be identified due to safety concerns, told WIRED that they were not surprised no one replied, as the organization “may not want to draw extra attention to this event.”

After departing Arizona, the trio of livestreamers headed to California, where they continued to try and track down migrant camps. On several days their searches were fruitless, though they continued to broadcast and solicit donations through YouTube.

After Fulfer and Felix departed, Yarbery continued to “hunt,” as he called it, and during one broadcast over the weekend, he livestreamed with his partner and their baby while driving toward the border in Jacumba Hot Springs.

While there, Yarbery met with locals to discuss the migrant situation, and in one conversation a man could be heard on the livestream saying, “I say we shoot ’em all,” before Yarbery told him to be quiet as he was broadcasting live on YouTube.

YouTube told WIRED that it terminated Fulfer and Felix’s accounts after WIRED asked about the livestreamers, but it did not take action on Yarbery’s account. All of Yarbery’s videos, YouTube said, were set to private by the account holder. Yarbery has also created a backup channel, and told his followers in a YouTube chat where they could continue to follow him on the platform.

For years, extremism experts have been tracking how violent rhetoric around the border and migrants has led directly to violence, dating back to the 2000s when fear-mongering attacks on immigrants led to the mobilization of far-right paramilitary groups, one of which brutally murdered Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter Brisenia.

“Sadly, this cycle of violence has become so common that it tends to go unnoticed outside of the communities targeted by far-right vigilantes,” Burghart said. “This time around, the Black Mirror-like difference is that tech advances now allow [people like Yarbery, Fulfer, and Felix] to stream and monetize their cruelty to a far-right fanbase that craves more.”

[cookie-nom-nom]

“The only thing that we're not doing is we're not shooting [immigrants] who come across the border, because of course, the Biden administration would charge us with murder.” -Greg Abbott, Texas governor

Hey, so in case y'all aren't aware, the governor of Texas is defying the Supreme Court's order to take out razor wire on the border that severely endangers the lives of people trying to cross, under the grounds that Texas is protecting itself from invasion. Abbott is threatening to pit the Texas national guard against Federal troops. It's probably a bluff, but praying for Republicans to be rational rarely works. Extremists are literally calling for succession from the United States.

I don't think it'll come to fighting, but the fact Abbott is so openly defying federal orders and blatantly threatening militant action is pretty terrifying. Especially if he's just allowed to do this, which would set a very dangerous precedent for what states can get away with.

[i-am-aprl]

Texas police stormed the campus of UT Austin and arrested 43 students who defied orders to clear away the protest encampment that had been erected in support of Gaza.

The mobilizations in Texas show how solidarity with Palestine is spreading far beyond the traditional bastions of student activism, as well as the absence of so-called “free speech” and “First Amendment” rights in conservative states that claim to champion these values.

Nevertheless, despite the repression and arrests, students continue to protest daily and refuse to abandon the encampments. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said that “no encampments will be allowed,” yet those encampments remain.